Well we are happy to say that we have been back in the studio and already tracking brand new songs for an upcoming EP to be released early 2017! In fact, we will be rockin’ the Blacksheep Inn in Wakefield, Quebec tomorrow night, sharing the stage with our Rock n’ Roll compadres, The Red Rails! Check out our fb event page for details but we are offering a bus and show ticket package as well! Going to be a great show in a great venue! Hope to see you all there!

If you haven’t been following Sal’s more detailed FB feed and posts, then you haven’t totally been in the loop! As you may or may not know, earlier in this past summer, Sal and his longtime friend Shawn Meehan, from Vancouver, BC, decided to put together a Country/Rock project called “Sons Command.” This is not to say that Sal has abandoned his Rock roots or upcoming new rock recordings, but it does mean that Sal will be focusing on this golden new opportunity to perform more Southern Styled Rock and Country in a time period that is perfectly suited to the style. If you haven’t yet, please check out some Sons Command songs at: www.soundcloud.com/sonscommand, and join the SC FB page at: www.facebook.com/sonscommand, Twitter page at: www.twitter.com/sonscommand, and Instagram page at: www.instagram.com/sonscommand.

With a Sons Command radio single slated for National release in January 2015, Sons Command recently topping influential Country charts, and this new article coming out tonight in the Ottawa Citizen, you can bet that Sons Command’s brand of “Redneck N’ Roll” will be coming to airwaves near you VERY SOON!!!! We hope we can continue to count on your support!!!

Hi all! We are excited and proud to say that 2 Sal Piamonte songs, “Lay It On The Line,” and “Tonight,” have been selected amongst entries from all around the world to be featured during one or more of the 2015 World Junior Hockey Championship games which are being covered by TSN! Although we still haven’t received word if one or both songs will be used, or during what exact game(s) it will air, we will let you know asap!

Thanks for all your support and Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!!!

Big shout out to the boys and team at BSLIVEROCKS at www.maxinkradio.com tonight! Although the interview was quick paced (despite Sal’s long stories), it was a total blast!!! Thanks to all the max ink radio listeners for tuning in and for supporting the scene!!!

As mentioned in the interview, our rock cover of Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” can be downloaded off of the home page of this website (www.salpiamonte.com), and our new little side project, “The Devil City Saints,” just released a 7 song album which is available as a free download that you can pick up here: www.soundcloud.com/Sal-Piamonte . This album is a little collection of tunes that include a bunch of styles we dig musically, including blues/blues-rock/country/country-rock/swampy bayou/soul/ and even a little story-telling!

Be sure to let us know what you think and DOWNLOAD THESE TUNES WHILE YOU CAN!!!!

Thanks for all the support and see you at the shows!!!…stay tuned for dates coming your way!!!

HEY EVERYONE! YOU CAN NOW DOWNLOAD OUR HOCKEY SONG, “LAY IT ON THE LINE,” ON ITUNES!!! THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THEIR AMAZING SUPPORT, AND TO THE CBC’S “HOCKEY DAY IN CANADA” TEAM FOR CHOOSING IT FOR A MUSICAL VIDEO MONTAGE WHICH AIRED NATIONALLY!!! WHAT A TRIP!!!

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE BEEN ASKING, WE ARE HAPPY TO SAY THAT OUR SINGLE IS NOW LIVE ON ITUNES!!! DOWNLOAD IT HERE:

WISHING YOU ALL A GREAT SPRING AND HAPPY “GET’CHUR-SELVES-READY-FOR-THE-TOURING-SEASON!!!”

Hey everyone!
By now, most of you heard that my hockey song, “Lay It On The Line,” wasn’t chosen as the winner for CBC’s SongQuest competition this year, who were searching for the next great hockey song. With all of your support, the song did extremely well, “officially” placing in the Top 50 out of 1000 songs which were submitted from across the country. When the Top 10 was announced, and I didn’t see my name in there, I must admit that I was a little disappointed. That is not to say that the other entries weren’t deserving, it’s just that in my heart, I truly felt that this song was the perfect fit and had a real chance to win. Ultimately, I took solace in the fact that the CBC had a hard choice to make with so many great songs, and so I looked at it like a positive…not a negative!
Why am I recapping all of this are you wondering???…..
Well, as you know, this past weekend was the biggest weekend for hockey in our great nation, and for the NHL. “Hockey Day In Canada” is a weekend celebrated every year by all Canadians across the nation. There are festivities, events, and much fanfare about our beloved game, and as you know from my earlier emails, the winner of SongQuest was to have their song officially debut the “Hockey Day In Canada” proceedings with a Nationally televised video montage edited to the winning song….
So it’s exactly 1:39 PM on Saturday…and my girlfriend Angie and I are about to leave the house to run errands when I hear my phone beep with an email alert…non-chalantly, I read it over real quick, hit my lock button, then throw the phone back in my pocket. Suddenly, the magnitude of the email hits, and I open up my phone again, and read the following message:SUBJECT: URGENT!-Hockey Day

Message: SAL! Hope you’re tuning in to the 2pm ET game for Hockey Day. YOUR SONG QUEST ENTRY will air at the top. Apparently the Hockey Night team loved it, and wanted to figure out a way to squeeze it on the air even though it didn’t win.

Enjoy and congratulations! Associate Producer, CBC Music
OMG…it’s now 1:49 PM, so I read the message to Angie…and the two of us race for the tv…as she scrambles to find the channel and figure out the PVR, I call my parents, text my aunts, etc etc…before we could even process what was happening, at 1:55 PM, the “Hockey Day In Canada” program on the CBC was starting…with a full, almost 2 minute long video montage to my song, “Lay It On The Line.” I couldn’t believe it…such a numb and totally surreal moment. For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, the CBC posted the video montage on their site, where it can be viewed here (note for some reason the link doesn’t work well with cell phone viewing so watch it from your computer):

http://www.cbc.ca/player/Sports/Hockey/ID/2430834046/Somehow, the stars aligned, I took a chance, and apparently, so did someone else….and all I can say is “THANK YOU UNIVERSE!” What a special moment not only for me, but for all of my friends and family who have supported me through the years…for a Canadian boy growing up with a hockey dream, this was as close to “making good on a second chance at the pros” as one could ask for. I can only hope that some more good will come of this, and that a few doors will open for me while I chase this musical dream…
Thanks to all of you for all the positive energy, love, and support…this small victory as as much YOURS as it is mine…
Humbled…and still feeling awesome…
Sal

We made the cut out of 1000 entries from across Canada and now we need to kick it up a notch in order to make the TOP 10!!!…We’ll need everyone VOTING, LIKING, & LISTENING as much as possible starting from 4 PM EST tonight up until this Thursday, Dec 19th!!! YOU MADE THIS ALL POSSIBLE & THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH WORDS TO EXPRESS OUR GRATITUDE!!!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to send you a quick update regarding our hockey song submission, “Lay It On The Line,” for CBC’s SongQuest competition…

The Top 50 submissions out of 1000 from across Canada will be announced live before both Hockey Night In Canada broadcasts tomorrow, December 14th, before both the 3 PM and 7 PM EST games…

However…they will be leaking the results at noon tomorrow with a picture gallery of the TOP 50 so if all continues to go well, you just might see us there!!! 😉 …and we do make the TOP 50, then there will be another important voting/listening period that will run from tomorrow @ 4PM until Thursday, December 19th @ midnight…Same voting process, same link:http://music.cbc.ca/#/artists/Sal-Piamonte

Thanks again for the incredible support!!! We couldn’t do it without you!

Well…what a ride these last few weeks have been in our quest to have our song, “Lay It On The Line,” vie for the title of “The Next Great Hockey Song in Canada” as part of CBC’s SongQuest!!! The support we have received from our friends, family, colleagues, and our community has been overwhelming, and it has been amazing to make some new fans along the way! More than anything though, being a part of this competition has made us realize just how much Canadian pride there is in our country. With so many great songs and submissions, it is a testament to how much we Canadians LOVE our hockey…OUR GAME!!!

As a Canadian kid growing up with the dream of making the NHL, having my song chosen would be a little bit of sweet redemption for a hockey dream that never quite panned out…a second shot at making it to the show, regardless if it is not as a player this time around. The other thing I realized is that this song means a lot more to me personally at a time in my life when I needed a boost. Following CBC’s SongQuest song criteria, references, and guidelines, it became somewhat clear…and therapeutic, to think that I could write a song that didn’t necessarily have to speak about hockey per se, but about the spirit of competition, an in essence, the spirit of hockey. With only a few days left to submit the song when entries were being accepted, I realized that writing the song was just as much about competing and rising to the occasion as when I was a competitive hockey player chasing down a dream…a trophy…a championship. The song, “Lay It On The Line,” speaks to the entire writing process, as well as the spirit that many of the teams that I was fortunate to be a part of, shared. It got me out of my funk, out of my rut, and forced me to “put my hockey helmet back on,” to “lace up my skates,” and to get amped up for the “big game.” In an odd twist of fate, I became the hockey player I once was, metaphorically chasing down a hockey dream…with a song.

Reflecting on this day, I feel proud that I didn’t fold and think that chasing another longshot hockey dream was out of my reach. I challenged myself, I challenged my demons, I wrote something personal and from the heart, and I put it out into the world for all to see…for the scouts to notice and to hopefully love. I didn’t just do this for hockey, for SongQuest, or anyone else for that matter, I did it for me. And in the spirit of competition, of being Canadian, and of being a creative person in the world, I can only hope that my song inspires many others who might be fighting their own personal demons, or attempting to climb their own mountains, be it in athletics, or just everyday life.

So to all of you reading, supporting, and believing in us and our message, we thank you sincerely from the bottom of our hearts. We hope that we can continue to count on your friendship and support, and if the stars align this time around, we just might see you at the show 😉

Sal

VOTE FOR “LAY IT ON THE LINE” TO BE CANADA’S NEXT GREAT HOCKEY SONG FOR CBC MUSIC’S SONGQUEST COMPETITION!!!

Wow everyone!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!….we owe you a ton of debt and gratitude for your amazing support and we hope we can count on you to keep it up until December 11th when the voting period ends!!!…We are so thrilled and humbled by CBC’s notification today that our song “Lay It On The Line,” is currently in the Top 100 out of close to 1000 song entries from across the Nation!!!

Today was a really special day for us on many fronts as an amazing article in the Ottawa community paper, L’Ora Di Ottawa, by journalist GioVanni , titled: “Sal Piamonte’s Hockey Song: Giving Canada Something More To Cheer About,” started off the day, followed by the wonderful news of our current placement in the SongQuest challenge! Prior to this awesome news, I was putting together another hockey fact to add to the blog today…and although I was going to hold off on it until tomorrow, I figured there is no better time than the present to keep the great karma rolling!!! As always, keep up the great support for our hockey song by listening, liking, voting, and sharing our song “Lay It On The Line,” by continually visiting http://music.cbc.ca/#/artists/Sal-Piamonte !!

So here it goes, the Sal Piamonte Hockey Fact (more like story) #4, and it involves a memorable game that I played against former NHL’er PJ Stock, and current NHL’er Dainus Zubrus:

So here I am, training camp exhibition game during my second year of Jr. A hockey with the Smiths Falls Bears, coming off a pretty solid rookie campaign the year before, where, as a 5’10”, 160 lb defenseman, I tallied 5 goals and 14 assists in 42 games. Now, a year later, arriving at camp at a solid and muscular 170 lb’er, I was ready to Rock n’ Roll…conditioning and body were in top shape, and so was my confidence…The end of the year would see the team struggle in the standings, but it would see me post a personal best of 16 goals and 44 points during the campaign, which included a player of the week honour in the CJHL for a hat trick against the Brockville Braves, and a nod for coming one goal short of breaking the Smiths Falls Bears record for goals scored by a defenseman in a season. On this day, however, the Pembroke Lumber Kings were visiting us to play an exhibition game as both teams were in the middle of tailoring their final rosters for the regular season. The game begins and I score a goal and get off to a great start, but shortly after the start of the second period, I get railed into the boards from behind from someone as I go back to grab the puck in my own end. With no penalty called, and a raging angry fire burning inside, I chase that red sweater back to centre ice, turn that guy around, and before I could say “let’s drop the gloves,” notice that this dude has a full beard….I mean, like Duck Dynasty style…and as luck would have it, is none other than Pembroke’s captain, and tough over-ager that year, Jeff O’Connor. GREAT. To make matters worse, my dad was on the other side of the glass, and didn’t exactly make the situation better when I heard him say “Oh Shit.” …So the gloves come off, punches get thrown, we trip over sticks, the fight ends, and neither of us really took any serious punches or got hurt, but from that point on, would have a level of respect for each other, each time we played…and when we played, it was all out war.

Playing in Pembroke was brutal. I always played well against the Lumber Kings, but their fans were a force to be reckoned with, and knew how to get under a player’s skin. So there we were…playing the Kings in Pembroke, and I should’ve known it was going to be a long night when they booed my name when it was called at the start of the first period….and that first period was rough!…but we scored and I got an assist on the goal. More boos…and boos…and heckles… the end of the first period saw a pretty awesome fist-a-cuffs between my buddy, Gord Ollson (younger brother of Johnny Ollson who won a Memorial Cup with Darren Pang & Brian Kilrea of the Ottawa 67’s back in the day), and none other than the gregarious former NHL’er, and now sportscaster (and undergarment endorser), P.J. Stock. PJ was a talented and hard-nosed player, but he and Gord went toe to toe and must have exchanged a 100 punches…it was ridiculous, but awesome. End of period: Smiths Falls 1, Pembroke 0.

At the start of the second period, Jeff O’Connor and I tap each other on the pads, a show of respect, knowing full well that once the whistle blew, it was going to be “go hard or go home.” And as luck would have it, the opening face off of the second period was won by us, and the puck comes back to me. Just as I begin to move forward with the puck, it sticks on the water still floating on the ice, and I look down for one split second…..one lousy split second. When I finally get the puck to “unstick,” I look up, and BAM!!!!….I get plowed by the Jeff O’Connor train at centre ice…dazed, confused, and refusing to let the Pembroke faithful continue to celebrate at my expense, I stumble up….and WILLFULLY force myself to make it back to the bench….problem is, I skate to the wrong bench…rough night Piamonte, rough night….by the end of the second period, I managed to get my marbles back, log another assist, and we head into the dressing room tied 2-2.

With the game tied, the start of the third period had Pembroke Captain Jeff O’Connor approach me with a smile, asking me if I was okay. It was a bittersweet moment, but he meant it, and we both knew that on this occasion, he had one over on me. That was one of the beautiful things about hockey…where else could you fight like dogs during the play, but in between whistles, have enough respect to be human and to acknowledge true gamesmanship?!?…But the puck eventually dropped, and it was “ON.” The game got chippy, and in the heat of the battle, I got called for roughing amidst the screams and jeers of the Pembroke faithful…as I get in the box, I sit down, slam my stick, take off my gloves, and reach for the water bottle. Suddenly…WHAM!!!!…smashed with a rubber chicken!…I look left…I look right…then WHAM!!!…smashed again with a rubber chicken!…but just as a third shot came reigning down, I managed to anticipate, catch, and pull the elastic cord from the rubber chicken away from whoever was swinging it, and before I could think twice, I began firing back crazily over the glass…SMASH! Take that!!!…and again!!!….and….whoops!!!….just as I glance up in mid-swing, I think to myself, “is that a young kid I’m trying to hit with a rubber chicken?!?!?!?”……OH BOY….the crowd goes caaaaa-rrrr-aaaaazy!!! Their favourite rink rat just had his rubber chicken stolen and was almost being beaten with it….you couldn’t have scripted a more ridiculous situation. So obviously, when I realize who it is, I stop swinging the rubber chicken, and take a quick look to my left, where I see the boys on my team bench laughing hysterically at what they were seeing…like “keeled over laughing” as I was being threatened by the crowd and taunted by opposing players…as I get escorted off the ice, I am told to stay locked in the dressing room until the game was over for fear of reprimand by the Pembroke fans….the whole time time thinking “did this really just happen?”

So what is my connection to PJ Stock and Dainus Zubrus you wonder?!?!?!?…..NOTHING!!!!…except that they happened to be playing against me that fateful night when I was taken down by a rubber chicken!!!! THANK YOU PEMBROKE!!! It’s still unclear to me as to which team won the game, but looking back…who really cares…that golden hockey memory is a keeper!!!

I promise to keep the next fact/story shorter, so stay tuned….and remember: “If you’re gonna give it, be prepared to take it!!!”